Are Chelsea still in trouble, or is their season a hustle worthy of a Hollywood film?

Not just film-worthy, indeed, but worthy of pride of place at next month’s Oscars ceremony. Will the Best Actor award go to Jose Mourinho - or George Clooney as The Special One - who kept us all fooled this season? He played the part of the ruse magnificently, making everyone believe that Chelsea were unworthy Champions - apart from that one victory over Arsenal back in September, but he just had to beat Mourinho one last time.

Best supporting actor, though, must surely be Oscar. The Brazilian, too, fooled us with languid sauntering around the pitch under the final days of the Mourinho reign, only to spark into action afterwards - but of course it was all part of the act. An Oscar for Oscar.

And then the rest of the cast, they had us all fooled, too. Bravo.

[ffc-gal cat="chelsea" no="5"]

At least, that’s how it looks. They dispatched of Arsenal expertly - although they themselves didn’t manage too much in the way of goalscoring chances, the fact that Arsenal couldn’t either probably makes this a typical Abramovich-era Chelsea performance.

But on top even of that is John Terry’s rallying call to his troops, telling them that the Champions League isn’t yet out of reach. Cue some serious mocking, I’m sure.

On the basis of the performances this season, Chelsea deserve to be in next season’s Champions League about as much as JT deserved to run onto the pitch in a full kit in 2012.

Theoretically they can make that last-ditch run at the Champions League, though it isn’t just Tottenham, 14 points ahead, who they’d have to overtake. It’s the other eight teams between them and fourth spot, too. It’s not about Spurs slipping up in order for Chelsea to come fourth, they have to hope everyone else slips up too. A tough ask, and you get the feeling that perhaps those teams have slipped up enough in the first half of the season. Though perhaps the lack of form up ahead is what makes it possible.

In any case, whether Chelsea can or can’t make it to the Champions League next season - and they’ll have to be pretty perfect from here on in if they are to make it - they will still have a big say in who does make it into that competition next season.

With only half of the season gone, Chelsea still have the big teams to play before the end of the season, with Manchester City and Leicester being two games they’ll have at home between now and May.

And maybe that’s where the hustle lies. They’ve bitten off more than they can chew in terms of clawing back a shot at the title or a Champions League place, but they can still hustle to the tune of stopping the likes of Manchester City and Leicester City winning the title. After all, last night they put a dent in Arsenal’s title hopes, though they were relieved to see Manchester City slip up too.

Their game against Manchester United comes up very soon, too (will that have the big, ripe and juicy sub-plot being Mourinho’s first game in charge of Manchester United?) and the game against Spurs is at the end of April. All of the title-chasing, Champions League-chasing teams bar Arsenal are yet to come for the Champions. If they can’t make it into the Champions League, they can still decide who else won’t.

But then, as unlikely as it is for Chelsea to finish fourth, qualification for the Champions League doesn’t need to take the form of league position. Chelsea can still qualify for next season’s competition by winning this season’s edition.

As far-fetched as Chelsea winning the Champions League sounds, winners of that competition are usually teams who are having a magnificent, steamroller of a season, or else teams doing terribly (though ‘terribly’ is relative, after all, they won the Champions League….) Winners are either teams like Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United who win the treble, or else they’re teams like Chelsea themselves in 2012, who have long since dismissed the league as a genuine target, and focused their energies on the Big Cup instead.

No team has ever won the Champions League in the same season that they finished second in the league, for example. No team has just had a decent season and won the Champions League. And so history would seem to stack in Chelsea’s favour this time.

WANT MORE? >> Chelsea transfer news | Latest transfer news

The only games they need to get themselves up for from here on in are the big ones, and even then, only the ones they fancy. They don’t have to turn up and play well against Bournemouth away, but they might like to take Manchester City down a peg. They don’t even have to raise their game for Spurs if they don’t want to, because there could be a Champions League semi-final on the horizon.

It’s a tough ask for a team who look so much in disarray, but it’s worth remembering that most pundits thought that Chelsea were about to embark on a new dynasty of dominance only a few months ago. This team still has quality.

And for any group of players, winning all the trophies is the ultimate goal, and the key to that is motivation. Chelsea’s current group have already won the Premier League and the League Cup, so there’s no motivation left in those competitions. They haven’t won the Champions League or the FA Cup however, two competitions where they’re still alive.

Don’t be surprised if the hustle isn’t over just yet. Chelsea may not be targeting the league, but they are the Champions, so they will truly believe they can win the other two cups left open to them.

[ad_pod id='writeforus' align='center']